Yachting: We're not there yet, says Dalton

A huge bottle of champagne sat unopened on Grant Dalton's desk in Trapani.

The gift was from the Sicily event organisers to recognise Team New Zealand's position as the top America's Cup challenger - something the syndicate head didn't think was reason enough to celebrate.

"We may be good enough to challenge for the America's Cup but we are still not good enough to win it," he said.

The Emirates-sponsored syndicate finished the year as the number one challenger, edging out Chris Dickson's BMW Oracle Racing.

The two syndicates finished the year's six regattas equal on 61 points. Team New Zealand's three-second win over Oracle in their last match-race was what broke the tie.

But while Team New Zealand and Oracle were locked together, Alinghi were a clear 10 points ahead. "Alinghi's dominance is perhaps the result of superior boat speed," said Dalton. "I see Alinghi still well clear. It is not that hard to sail a fast boat and look good because it gets you out of trouble, but they are tight as a unit."

Oracle ended the season well in Trapani, beating Alinghi in the final day of match-racing then taking it to them in the fleet racing regatta.

Leading into this year's regattas, Team New Zealand's aims were to rotate crew, improve their winning starts and first-cross percentages, and learn more about boat speed.

All of which were achieved in a round about way. In the three match-racing regattas sailed this year Team New Zealand won 27 of their 33 races.

In the three fleet-racing regattas Team New Zealand finished with two thirds and a fourth.

"I think we need to be more consistent. We had some good races and some bad races," Dalton said.

"In saying that our biggest strength, which I think has grown more in this regatta in Trapani, is the unity and solidarity of the team.

"Our base is rock solid as a unit. But we have to get better."

To help improve their match-racing skills and build the relationship between the afterguard, syndicate members are building a TP52 boat and have bought two Swedish Match 40s for inhouse racing.

"I think we just need to continue upskilling and let Ben [Ainslie] and Kelvin [Harrap] do a lot of work with testing on the new boat and let the afterguard with Dean [Barker] and Terry [Hutchinson] get out and race. Race, race, race till they hate the word race. It is there for us to play for. We are complete idiots if we bugger this up." 

State of play
Match racing this year - 33 races 

Boat wins 
Alinghi 31
Oracle 28
Team NZ 27
Luna Rossa 25